Word from Canada is that Arkansas Traveler is ready to splash! The shaft has been straightened, the engine realigned on its mounts, the cutlass bearings replaced, the strut straightened, and the spare propeller mounted in its spot at the end of the shaft. The repaired propeller is in the trunk of our rental car and will become the new spare that we will hopefully never need. Alas. I wonder what the rock looked like.

The propeller, straightened, balanced, and shiny.

We expect that after all of the focused fussing with the engine/shaft/propeller alignment factors, Arkansas Traveler will run more quietly and smoothly through the water than ever before. She has been returned to her original shipyard standards, or better. I cannot wait to ply the waters of Lake Superior again.

This is a fuse. It is unlike any fuse that I have encountered. It lives in a clear plastic box deep within the bowels of the engine room and holds many electrical secrets.

The above fuse (a little over 1” long) was the fix for our windlass problem. It took an extra call to the very helpful mechanic at Barker’s Island Marina before we found it. We checked the circuit breakers and all the in-line fuses that we could find, but this fuse was a new style for us. It controls the power to the windlass and the wash-down pump on the foredeck. It is extremely important and we now have a glut of spares.

During the prop repair process we drove home, stopping for two nights in Grand Marais, Minnesota. It is one of our favorite ports – good food, interesting local art, excellent coffee shops, fresh donuts, a superb independent bookstore, and an especially inviting lakeshore promenade. Here are some photos…

We are thinking that we can take an easy three weeks to get to Sault Ste. Marie. (The weather here is very pleasant in late July/early August.) We will then give ourselves three weeks travel to Chicago, arriving the first week in September. Plenty of time if we avoid further encounters with rocks!